My Uncle Ken died early this week. He had some ongoing health issues (he had Polio as a child, but Polio also returns later in life to play havoc) and during recent short stays in hospital I swapped txts with my Aunt, and in one txt she mentioned he had been checked out of hospital so he could have his birthday at home. So I had a big bunch of lillies delivered to their home, as I’d planned to have them sent to the hospital. Two days later he died.

Throughout his career he ran a business with a mechanical workshop, and was also into motorbikes, photography & travel – using any holiday time to travel the South island of NZ in their campervan, taking exceptional photos. I remember when they bought a BMW motorbike with a sidecar, and how amazingly high tech it was that after you got onboard it would recalibrate & adjust the suspension to your weight.

But OMG that Ducati!
The photo is from sometime in the 1980s. He ordered that Ducati but insisted on it being shipped in parts, and he assembled it himself. From the stories, every biker in Ashburton came to visit to check how his progress was. And he told me a funny story that the first time he kicked it over & started it, one of his neighbours came over & told him all the leaves had fallen off their tree!

While it’s eternally sad for my Aunt, it’s also sad that so many skills died with Ken. He did incredible things with metal lathes – manufacturing parts and cutting threads that were too complex for me to even understand. Only a few weeks ago when talking to a local mechanic working on my 4WD, when I mentioned Ken & his health concerns, they commented how so many mechanical skills are simply disappearing, as a generation ages out.

Two last anecdotes.
When I was very young, only 9 or 10 years old, I used to go & stay with Ken & Sue during the school holidays. My Grandmother Irene was also living in their big house in Ashburton, and my Gran took me to see the first films I ever experienced. Despite it being a lifetime ago, I vividly remember the feeling, of seeing The Wizard of Oz, and then Willy Wonka and others on that massive screen, with incredibly surreal colour. Those experiences at a young age fed directly into my imagination and without a doubt inspired my career working on films.

I also have another even earlier memory, of watching Dr Who on our B&W TV at home on the farm. (We didn’t get our first colour TV until 1974, in time for the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch broadcast in colour)
This memory made me realise that the very first electronic sounds I ever heard were made by the Radiophonic Workshop for Dr Who. Delia Derbyshire and her incredible theme music, and those utterly terrifying ring modulated Dalek voices! The die was cast…